Re: Dead,
dead, dead

: : : : : : When my
great grandfather was a cowboy. On his death bed, he held my grandfather's hand
and said "I'm going over the Big Ridge. Look after your mama." I doubt the euphamism
was his invention, I think it was probably just what they called it at the time
- at least on the high plains in the United States. It's an apt metaphor for that
part of the country.

: : : : : : Anyway, I got to wondering if there were other
regional euphamisms for death or dying. Somthing along the lines of "I'll be sleeping
with the 'gators" for Florida maybe?

: : : : : : And while I'm packing them
in, another euphamism I like is "pushing up daisies". I think it's British but
I'd be interested in its origin if anyone knows it.

: : : : : There is the vicious
euphemism "improved the gene pool" favoured by The Darwin Awards.

: : : The fact
that two of you instantly referred to the Parrot Sketch is both frightening and
inspiring.

: : One that I heard in southern West Virginia isn't really a euphemism.
It refers to the time period between death and burial. (The body isn't buried
immediately -- a "wake" or "visitation" is held in the home or, more commonly
now, the funeral home.) "Snow hasn't drifted that deep since John lay a corpse."
Others: "No longer with us." "Gone to a better world." "Gone to be with the angels."
Asleep in the arms of God." "Crossed over."

: : I heard someone in WV refer
to a death by gunshot: "He got his popcorn." Another violent death reference:
"He got his killin' done."

: : I believe the Salvation Army says their dearly
departed are "promoted to glory."

: I found two more in my grandfather's book.
"laying down and curling up my toes", "pushing up sod".

And a few more...

From
the "Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth
Editions, Hertfordshire, 1995):
a one-way ticket (or ride) (gangster expression)
a
pale horse (death) (Revelation 6:8)
at peace
be under the daisies
become
a landowner (be buried)
bow out (theatrical)
cash in one's checks
cashed
in his chips (poker)
crossing over the River Jordan (black spiritual)
curtains
(theatrical)
doing a dance in mid-air (cowboy - hung)
free
gone across
or over the creek (violent death)
gone out
gone to a better place (or to
sleep)
gone under
grounded for good (die as a soldier)
hang up one's
harness (or hat or tackle) (cowboy)
home
in the Hereafter
it's taps (military)
jumped
the last hurdle (steeple-chasing or fox-hunting)
laid to rest
lose a decision
(boxing)
making the ultimate sacrifice (die as a soldier)
necktie party
(cowboy - hung)
negative patient outcome (modern medicine)
no longer with
us
old Floorer (death personified, 15th century poem)
pass out of the picture
(maybe early cinematography)
pay day (1600s)
pay Saint Peter a visit (20th
century American)
pop off
promoted to glory (Salvation Army)
Requiescat
in pace (RIP)
rest in peace (RIP)
ring off
settle one's accounts
snuffed
out (adapted from Shakespeare)
switch out the lights (theatrical)
take a
count or take a long count or the last count (boxing)
take a long walk off
a short pier (gangster)
take the last bow (theatrical)
Texas cakewalk (hung)
the
big jump (cowboy's expression)
the call of God
the final call
the final
curtain (theatrical)
the final summons (from imagery in Revelations)
the
Great Leveller (Death personified)
the Great Whipper (Death personified, British
term of the 1860s from fox-hunting)
the Grim Reaper (Death personified. First
use may be Longfellow's "The Reaper and the Flowers," 1839)
the last getaway
(gangster)
the last muster (die as a soldier)
to be at rest
to be blown
over the creek (violent death)
to be cut off
to be gone to a better place
to
be human fruit; strange fruit (Black expression for lynching)
to be in (or
rest in) Abraham's bosom
to be in Heaven
to be present at the last roll
call (die as a soldier)
to be trumped (cards)
to be with God
to be with
our Father
to be with the angels
to check out
to count the daisies
to
croak
to cross over
to cut one's stick (refers to carving a new walking
stick)
to dangle in the sheriff's frame (British, late 1800s)
to decorate
a cottonwood tree (cowboy)
to do one's bit (die as a soldier)
to drop hooks
or pop off the hooks (may be irreverent allusion to the nailing of Christ on the
cross)
to fire one's last shot (die as a soldier)
to go home in a box (military)
to
go the way of all flesh (Douay Bible's translation of III Kings 2:3)
to go
to one's last (or just) reward
to go to one's long home (Ecclesiastes, 12:5)
to
go to the hereafter
to go to the last roundup (cowboy)
to go up Salt River
(political)
to go West (early use: Scots poet Gray, 1515. Probably to the setting
sun.)
to have a funeral in one's family (gangster)
to have found rest
to
have one's name inscribed in the Book of Life (Jewish)
to hop the last rattler
(1915 term for fast freight train)
to join the Immortals or be among the Immortals
to
jump the last hurdle (cowboy's expression)
to lay down your shovel (or hoe)
to
lay down's one's life (to die for country or cause)
to lose or to have lost
someone
to pay the debt of nature
to quit it or to quit the scene (Black
English)
to slip off (nautical)
to strike out (baseball)
tossed in his
alley (marbles)
wearing cement shoes (or overshoes or overcoat) (gangster)
weighted
down with his boots (cowboy's expression)

From my own collection:
death by
HMO (health maintenance organization)
make the O-sign (open mouth) or the Q-sign
(open mouth + tongue) (modern medicine)

From "This Dog'll Hunt: An Entertaining
Texas Dictionary" by Wallace O. Chariton (Wordware Publishing, Piano, Texas, 1989,
1990):
answered the last roll call
don't have the pulse of a pitchfork
just
coyote bait
morgue-aged
on a stoney lonesome
pushing up bluebonnets
ready
for a cold slab
shook hands with eternity
turned belly up (refers to animals
turning belly up when dead)
turned up his toes

The state of being really,
really dead:

From "Facts on File Dictionary
of American Regionalisms" by Robert
Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000):
"deader than a pelcher (pilchard)
- Indisputably dead. Variations are 'deader than a mackerel' and 'deader than
a duck." (Yankee Talk)
"dead as a beef - Completely dead. With no life.dead
as a hammer - Without any life at all." (Whistlin' Dixie. Southern terms)
"dead
as four o'clock - Quite dead, refers to either the 'dead' end of the afternoon,
or the quiet of four o'clock in the morning." (Mountain Range)

From "This Dog'll
Hunt: An Entertaining Texas Dictionary" by Wallace O. Chariton (Wordware Publishing,
Piano, Texas, 1989, 1990):
dead as hell in a preacher's backyard or a parson's
parlor
as a 6-card poker hand
as Santa Anna
as a lightning bug in the
cream pitcher
as a drowned cat in a goldfish bowl
as a rotten stump